American artists

When an ex-GI named LeRoy Neiman was trying to teach himself to paint in the late 1940s by studiously copying prints from books he checked out of the public library, the aspiring artist came to be fascinated with the work of French painter Paul Cézanne, whose daring experiments with color and brushstrokes helped create Modernism. But ultimately, Neiman – who achieved fame with riotously colorful portraits of athletes and sporting events – instead came to emulate another less lofty artist. …